Podesta to step down at CAP

John Podesta will step down as president of the Center for American Progress, an official at the organization said today.

Podesta, who served as Bill Clinton’s last chief of staff from 1998 to 2001, founded the center in 2003 with a core of wealthy liberal supporters and transformed it into the Democratic Party’s key policy and politics shop.

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Podesta, 62, will remain the center’s chairman, and will also serve Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a day-a-week volunteer, the CAP official said, but is not immediately expected to take on any other public role.

“He will continue to provide long-term strategic advice,” said his successor, former Clinton and Obama policy aide Neera Tanden.

Podesta will serve as an "expert consultant" to the State Department, an official there said, advising on foreign policy priorities.

Specifically, he'll work on "leveraging diplomacy for development; elevating the role of energy and economics in foreign policy; and, civilian power and the transitions occurring in the Middle East (Tunisia, Egypt and Libya)," the official said.

Podesta chaired President Barack Obama’s transition, and about a third of the staff of the Center for American Progress went into the Obama administration. Since then, CAP has been a key ally of the Obama White House, developing policy plans that included an outline for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and defending the administration from Republican attacks on its media outlet, ThinkProgress.

Before joining the Clinton administration, Podesta held senior posts on Capitol Hill. In the White House, he was credited with steadying a presidency rocked by the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Podesta also co-founded a powerhouse Washington lobbying firm, the Podesta Group, with his brother Tony.